Broad Vocabulary

This week brought the announcement of the closing of Milwaukee's only feminist bookstore, Broad Vocabulary. The Bayview neighborhood, south of downtown, was home to this lovely little establishment and the entire Milwaukee community, not to mention knitting groups, book clubs and others who regularly gathered on its bright couches, have lost a great bookstore.

This is just another reminder to all that nothing can replace the bookstore experience, the interaction with other readers and booksellers, the thrill of browsing and value of a good book, turning a page and building your own precious library.

here are some relatively recent titles related to feminist topics, that I love and think you should too:


Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming
I am by no means a 'gamer', never have been, but when I was in college, as a partial media studies kid, I picked up this book, which was very interesting with its theories on pretending from a first person gaming perspective.

from MIT Press: 'Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat' brings together new media theorists, game designers, educators, psychologists, and industry professionals, including some of the contributors to the earlier volume, to look at how gender intersects with the broader contexts of digital games today: gaming, game industry and design, and serious games.



On Their Own: Women Journalist and the American Experience in Vietnam by Joyce Hoffman

I was just discussing with Dr. Godsave the difficulty Americans have to this day with negotiating a place in history for the Vietnam War. Although, I disagreed with John McCain's proposed policies and voted for Obama, I can't help but wonder if a sliver of his failure to be elected to president (twice) had something to do with the people's perception of our involvement in Vietnam as some kind of stain on our history- which I gauge entirely on the recorded popularity/approval ratings of that conflict. Well, in any case, this collection, like Journalistas, hopes to educate readers on the unique experience of females in the field and the newsroom.


Righting Feminism: Conservative Women and American Politics by Ronnee Schreiber

With Sarah Palin running all over the country at first calling herself a feminist and then saying she's not actually a feminist, I was really wondering what was up with all the flip-floppin' and ballyhoo. I heard this author on Fresh Air and was fascinated by the underground conservative women's movements and their open rejection of "mainstream feminism" or basically just feminism as we know it. Oxford University Press has their own great overview of the text here. This book is the first of its kind and really a must read for feminists of all waves and persuasions.

and a couple more:
One of the Guys: Women as Aggressors and Torturers, ed. by McElvey, Tara and Ehrenreich, Barbara
Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America by Browder, Laura
Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Levy, Ariel